


Amalgam

by dragonashes



Series: Quintessence: Undertale One-shots [13]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Pre-Undertale, Spoilers - Undertale Genocide Route, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 00:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9295442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonashes/pseuds/dragonashes
Summary: Toriel and Asgore love their children more than anything in the world.  This is something the entire kingdom knows.  Chara's death was hard enough to bear; Asriel's disappearance mere hours afterwards is worse.Then reports start coming in ofsomethingat the barrier, and Asgore must face the consequences a secret he kept from everyone.Is he a father or a king?





	

**Author's Note:**

> What really happened to Chara and Asriel?

“Where - where _are_ they?”

Asgore grabbed his wife’s paws in his own, limiting her frantic flailing.  “Toriel, my dearest, please sit down.  I told you that I would let you know the _moment_ the children are found.  There is...there is no need for this.”

“Asgore, Asgore they _aren’t here._  Why aren’t they _here?_  Asriel can’t...he isn’t...he can barely do magic at all!  He can’t defend himself out...out there!  And Chara?  Chara...Chara _died_ , correct?  Why is Chara gone?”

“Toriel...Tori, I-I don’t know.  I don’t _know_.  There are no answers right now.  Please, sit down.  I’ll explain what we have so far.  Do you want tea?  There...no, here, sit on the chair, my dear.  There you go.

“After Chara’s death, Asriel disappeared.  I assumed he was going to sit vigil with Chara, but when I went to check on him they were both gone.  This you know.

“There are some disturbing reports from monsters who were in the palace early this morning.  Some of them thought they saw or heard something headed towards...well, towards the barrier.”

“The Barrier?”  Toriel stared, wide-eyed in horror.  “But...Asriel couldn’t get through the barrier!  Neither could Chara!  Why...why would they go _there?”_

Asgore closed his eyes and breathed deeply against the sinking feeling in his chest.  “Dr. Gaster’s research on the barrier...well, you must understand, he brought this to me only last week, and I didn’t believe it myself.   _He_ wasn’t sure, but he wanted me to know that…”

A delicate paw found its way to Asgore’s clenched ones across the table.  “Breathe, dear.  What did Dr. Gaster say?”

“He was running some tests on the barrier, and the results suggested that...well, that a being with a human soul and a monster soul could pass through the barrier.  Not break it, but...pass through.  He didn’t have a way to verify, and it wouldn’t have done us much good, but he was, in his words, 50% confident.”

“So...so it’s likely that…”

“...That he was correct, yes.  Dr. Gaster’s guesses are more accurate than most monsters’ research.”

“But then...but then…!”

“Please, calm down.  Tori, we don’t _know_ what happened.  But...the reports we received, the ones about something headed for the barrier, it looked like it was far larger than either of our children.  They said it looked...horrifying.”

Toriel broke down in sobs, still clutching at Asgore’s hands.  Asgore gently squeezed them back.  Actually putting words to the dread that had been growing all morning put a sting in his eyes and a ball of lead in his throat.  He wished, vainly, for the numbness that had allowed him and Toriel to survive the war with the humans.

“Toriel, if...if Asriel really did absorb Chara’s soul, there is little we can do but wait.  It would not be beyond him to wish to break the barrier himself.  Perhaps some good may come of this.”

“Do not _speak to me_ of good!”  Toriel screamed, rocking forward in her chair.  Her eyes were glowing a fierce red, and Asgore felt a chill go down his spine.  His wife was capable of terrifying magic when she lost control.  “My Chara is _dead_ , and Asriel is _gone!_  I _will not_ lose two children in one day, do you hear me, Dreamurr?  I will break through the barrier myself, do you hear?”

Asgore disentangled his hands from Toriel’s and made his way around the table to her.  He carefully gathered her in his arms like a child, gratified when she put her arms around him in turn.  They knew - or strongly suspected - that both their children were beyond their reach at the moment.  There were no words in any human or monster language to describe the agony.

More than that, Asgore had seen first-hand what happened to a monster that absorbed a human soul.  As a young prince, he had watched as his father mutated into a horrific amalgamation of human and monster, desperately fixed on his last rational thought:

_K҉I̴͢L̷͢L͟ ̵͜T҉̷H̛E̶͏ HUMA̴̕NS̷ ̴KI̵͘L͘L͠͏ ͏T̡҉H̴҉̸E̵̛ ̷̧͟H̕UM͏҉AŅ͟S̴͜ ͡K̛͢I̷͢Ļ̨L̴͟ KIL̨̛L͘ ̨ĶI͘͜L̸̨͟Ļ͢ ̸̨̕K̵҉I҉LL̴ ̢KI̷̧̛LL_

Toriel had not been there.  Though well-versed in both combat and healing magic, strong healers were rare enough to warrant her being placed safely behind the main lines in a medical crew.  Asgore, the only survivor of the massacre that had occurred when his...when the beast his father became went mad, had desperately hidden all evidence.  As far as anyone but he and his queen knew, absorbing a human’s soul was a fantasy.

He regretted it, deeply.  He had _known_ that Chara’s human soul could be used by a monster in the same way. He had _known_ that Asriel and Toriel were distraught and desperate, desperate enough to consider alternate methods.

Why had he not _made sure_ Asriel understood the consequences of absorbing a human soul?

A loud clatter rang through the palace.  “Toriel, please remain here.  I will-”

But she was asleep, exhausted by grief and using too much magic in her search for her children.  It was, Asgore mused sadly, for the best.

He laid her on her bed and closed the door.  He dressed carefully in his armor, ignoring the growing confusion outside, and grabbed his trident.

The walk through the Judgement Hall seemed to take forever.  The golden light that flooded the corridor, itself a marvel of magic and science, seemed to mock him.

As he approached the barrier, he passed groups of guards in formation.  Good; Gerson had set them to work forming barricades along the palace hallways.  No one had expected an attack from the barrier so there were no fortifications; it was the best they could do.

He ordered Gerson to pull his men back from the barrier, to retreat deeper into the Underground.  The soldiers responded with well-concealed relief - being so close to the barrier was physically painful to most monsters, due to the excessive magic - but Gerson tried to refuse.  It took a direct order to get the old tortoise to move his tail, especially with the loud noises from the other side of the barrier increasing in volume.

Then, they stopped.  For several long minutes, everything was quiet.

Then, with a loud roar, _something_ ripped through the barrier.

It was large, larger than Asgore himself.  His heart clenched when he traced his son’s familiar features, aged by the excess power of Chara’s soul, in the shape of the creature’s face and muzzle.  Horns Asriel shouldn’t have had for another hundred years or more twisted from the top of its skull, covered in gouges from the beast’s sharp claws.

The feature that shocked Asgore the most was the pair of wings.  They appeared new - still damp and dripping from where they had torn out of the creature’s back - but the wingspan was impressive.  They looked nothing like any pair of monster wings Asgore had ever seen.  They appeared to be made of a thin framework of bone and tissue, but it was hard to see anything past the covering of brilliant iridescent magic.

The creature roared again.  Asgore readied his trident, prepared to...to…

...He couldn’t, could he?  He had killed humans (and a few rare monsters) in the past, but that was always, _always_ in defense of himself and his people.  This...thing had not attacked him, had it?  Could he not reason with it?

“As...Asriel?  Are you...there?  Chara?  My child?  Can you hear me?”

The creature lifted its head.  A sound - it could not be called a _voice_ \- echoed through the room.  It seemed to pierce directly into Asgore’s skull.

_H̨͞E̴L̷͘LO ̸̶F͜͠A͠Ţ͘H̶̢E̡͝R͠ ̴H̵̡E̴̵L̕L̕͞O͞ HELL͘͞O͏͏ ̧͜H̢E̶҉̢L̕L͢O ͏̡F̸͢͏A̧͠͡TH̛E̸̶R̴ ̷A̴S͡G̡O͢͡҉RE̸҉͡ ̷̶K͡I̢͜NG̶ M͟O̴̵̵N̨S̴̷͟TER̶ ̴̨͠D͘A̡D̡҉_

It was...it was not Chara or Asriel, or even both at once, but something...else?  Asgore’s head swam in pain, and it took him a moment to realize that the sheer proximity of the creature’s magic was damaging him.

“Please - can you tell me what happened?  Are you injured?”  He could see something black dripping from the creature but could not see any visible wounds, aside from the awful tears where the wings emerged.

In response, it opened its enormous hands and carefully laid something against the wall of the palace chamber.  Asgore took a step back when he registered what it was.

Chara’s body.

_S̴̡͞O̶͠͏R̵̢R̨͞Y͠ ̕S͝O̧̡҉RRY ͡H̶̨̛E̡̕L̡͠P̷̢ S͏̢͠O̸͟R̡R҉̵Y̷͞ D̴͢͜O̸̡N̶’T̡͟ ͠͏W̵̶A͏̵N͏͘͟T͟͢͡ ̕T͟Ǫ ̡ḨUR̷͢T̢͠ ̸͠F͘͜Į͝GHŢ̧͜ HA͏V͜͞E̢͢ T̵͘O̶͞ ͘F̸͝I͘GH҉͝T̴̸ ͠H̛A͜V̢͜E T͏̸O͜͏ ̡̧̨H͟͜A͞VE ̴͝TO͘ ͟͞FI̶͘GH̴̢͘T̢͠ ͞A͡SAS̴̷͟AS͏̢͠ASRIĘĻE͠ĻE͞L̨̡͘L̡L͘L҉L͘̕͢_

The creature screamed, clutching its jaw and horns in its claws.  Asgore watched, stunned with horror, as the creature’s face _melted_ as the claws came into contact, drops of black ooze splattering on the stones below.

The drops shone red in the mid-morning sun that shone through the barrier.   _DETERMINATION_.  This creature - whatever was left of his children - was being torn apart from the inside out by its own wretched will to live.

“My child - my children - please, please forgive me.”

There was nothing left to say.

_H̵̡U͏R͠T̨ ̷FI͠G͡HT̡ ͘H̨͝U̸͘R̸̕͝T ̧̨F̢͠͡I͏̛GH͟T̸͞ ͏̡H̵̷U̷͟R͟͡T̷̴͢ ͏F̸̨͞I͏ĢH͡T̢ ̨F҉I̷̛G̡̡͜H̷͠T ̨̡͢F̕͢Į̛ĢH͢T͢ F̴͏̕͏I͜G͜H͟T̶͘ ̷̧̛͘F̴̧I̡҉͞Ģ̸͝H͢҉T̶͘͜_

The beast lunged for Asgore, catching him across his armored chest.  It was a good blow...for an amateur.  Neither Asriel nor Chara had very much combat experience and they were trying to control a new body besides.

Asgore let his vision slide slightly out of focus, examining the creature’s magic instead of its physical form.  The amount of ATK and DEF was impressive, but manageable.  It almost rivaled Asgore’s own.

_Almost._

“Be strong, my children.”

_F̡̧̛I̶̢̕͜G͘H҉͟҉T̢̡ ̵̧͜͠F̷̸̨͘͜I̷̷̵̡̕G̕͟H̛͟T̶̵ ̛̕F̡҉͟͝I͏̵͟Ģ̴̕H̶̡T͢͏͟͢ ͠͡F̶̕͢͡I͏G̢͢͠͠H̷͘͡T̴ ̨̡̡F̢̡̨̕I̶͡G̶̴͞H̨̕͝T҉̵͟ ̷̨̕͠F̡Į̴͝͠G̵͢͞H̵Ţ̢͢ ̡F҉͟͡҉̧Į̢͝҉Ģ̴̧͘H̴͢͞͞͏T̸͝ ͠҉̷F̧͢͡Į͠G͜͝҉H̨̕͝͡T҉͠ ͡͝F̸͞I҉̸̵G͠͠H̸͢T͝҉_

“This will be over soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaah. I'm glad that's posted. I've had it sitting in my story queue for months, weighing on me.
> 
> Sorry if that got confusing there a bit. I'd imagine sharing control of a body with someone else would be a horrifying and confusing experience on the whole.
> 
> And yes, I know that in the game we're told that Asriel succumbed to his wounds, but...that's strangely convenient, yes? Especially considering the layout of the palace. One would think that he'd pass someone along the way, someone who could - ya know - _get help._ We're shown that Toriel is a powerful healer, and monster food can bring the character back from the brink of death. Why did no one at least _try_ to save the prince? And for that matter, how did anyone recognize Asriel if he'd transformed into an "unsettling" monster by absorbing Chara's soul?
> 
> It seems logical that the 'official' story _might_ just differ from reality, a little. After all, who would question the king's version of events, especially after such a terrible loss?
> 
> Anyways, Asgore's story is a sad enough one without adding all this mess into it. He just wants a family, darnit, and everyone either dies, leaves him, or is in the way of his people's freedom. A guy can't win, can he.
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please check out my author profile or the series, "Quintessence: Undertale One-shots." I've been posting most Wednesdays and Saturdays. I also have a few longer works in progress, which I'll be posting as they finish.


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